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Hercules Goes Fishing
"Good morning Star Fleet!" Captain Star called. "Today is your day off!" "Hurray!" all the tugs called. "I'm gonna go talk to Sally Seaplane," said Sunshine as he left the dock. "Yeah?" Ten Cents asked. "Well, I'm gonna go talk to Billy Shoepack." "I hear he's handling dynamite today," said Warrior. Everyone looked at him and groaned. "He handles dynamite every day!" Big Mac snapped. All the tugs left. Hercules stayed at the dock. "Sir, isn't there any work in the port I can do?" he asked. "I'm afraid not," said Captain Star. "Why don't you try going out to the estuary? I'm sure there's plenty of things to do on a day like this." "Why not?" Hercules thought. "Maybe I can count the birds." But really, counting birds isn't that exciting. Especially when the birds are having their day off. "Well, I might as well just sit here," said Hercules. He sat there for a very long time. Finally, he couldn't take it any more. "Isn't there anything to do out here?!" he complained. "I'm glad you asked," said his skipper, Tom. "Let's go fishing!" To Hercules's annoyance, fishing wasn't that much better, either. "I got a bite!" a crewman named Jenkins called. Everyone peered over the side to see. "Where?" "No, I got a mosquito bite," Jenkins said, looking at everyone curiously. They all groaned and continued to fish. "I'm not getting anything," Tom said after an hour. "All I got is a measly old crab and a couple pieces of coal," said Jenkins. "Why don't we go somewhere that actually has a lot of fish?" Hercules asked. "I doubt the fish would go out into an estuary that boats travel through." Everyone agreed. Tom weighed anchor, and they moved over to the area near Dem Der Rocks. They made sure not to crash themselves onto the rocks. "Now, let's see how many fish we can get now," said Tom. They fished for another hour. Luckily, they actually caught a few fish. "I just love mackarel!" said Tom as he cooked his fish on a small stove. The smell of fish permeated the air. Hercules sniffled slightly. "Pew!" he said. "I've smelt a lot of smells, but this smell is the smelliest of all smells!" "That's a lot of smells," Jenkins agreed. "I'm gonna go for another run. This time, I'm casting my line further out." He cast his line out into the open water. They heard a loud thud. "Did you hear that?" asked Tom. "That sounded like metal," said Hercules, peering into the water. "Reel your line in," said Tom. Jenkins shrugged and tried to reel his line in. But something was stopping him from pulling! "Let's pull back!" Tom said. Hercules revved his engines and pulled as hard as he could. There was a strange scraping noise, and without warning, the rod came free. Jenkins pulled it in. "No fish I've ever seen," he said. "Actually, I don't even think this is a fish." "It looks like a piece of a ship!" said Tom. "We need to head back and tell everyone right away!" A little while later, Hercules came back with Grampus and some of the other Star tugs. "Strange look to it," said Grampus. "Lemme 'ave a look." He dived into the water and began searching. He discovered a strange looking object. "Strange," he gargled. He moved across the ocean floor. There, in the water, was a ship! "That's an ironclad!" he exclaimed. "What's it doing here?" "The best thing to do is ask someone," said his skipper. Grampus resurfaced and told everyone about what he had found. "An ironclad, you say?" ask O.J. "I'm not sure if this helps, but I remember hearing about an ironclad from the Civil War that went missing in action during a storm back in the 1860s. The U.S.S. James, I believe." "From the looks of it," said Hercules. "The ironclad was lost and crashed onto Dem Der Rocks, left hidden until we found it." "All in a day's work," said Ten Cents. They headed home. "That wasn't such a dull day, was it?" Tom asked Hercules. "Not at all," mused Hercules. "Maybe we should have days off more often."